


A Merry Little Christmas Now

by Cybra



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cybra/pseuds/Cybra
Summary: Based on Sinclaironfire'sGirl Friday.Gandra hasn't had a good Christmas in a long time. While at the Bin Christmas party, one of the Spirits reminds her to keep the door open for better Christmases to come.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	A Merry Little Christmas Now

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sinclaironfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinclaironfire/gifts).



> For Sinclaironfire. Sorry I’m a day late but merry Christmas nonetheless!
> 
> **SPECIAL NOTE:** Gandra Dee is based on Sinclaironfire’s version of Gandra from their ongoing story [Girl Friday](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14608125/chapters/33763467). This is _not_ the canon Gandra.
> 
> **Disclaimer:** _Ducktales_ belongs to the Walt Disney Company.

According to Gyro, this was the first Christmas party Scrooge had thrown in twelve years. While their boss had reunited with his family almost two years ago, Scrooge had continued pretending that he hated Christmas. It was an act he’d started during the decade-long separation in an attempt to protect himself from the pain of his family not being there and had likely continued it due to his own uncertain place in the family. (Given how they’d all walked away from him just before the Shadow War, Gandra wasn’t entirely sure that Scrooge was being overly-sensitive.)

The Bin and the bridge leading to it had been completely decorated at great expense to the old man. Garlands of holly and lights led the way to where they wound about the building itself. The interior was filled with decorations both newly-purchased and those that had been left languishing in boxes for years in some largely-forgotten storage area. Each of the break rooms had an electric fireplace set up as both decoration and extra heaters. The Bin workers were pushed as hard as ever during the Christmas season – if not harder – but fresh Christmas goodies awaited them regularly and there were rumors that the “winter bonuses” were about to be called by their proper name once more.

Gandra’s mind had been awhirl since the Monday following Thanksgiving, Scrooge’s schedule becoming twice as busy during the Christmas season as he allowed his true love of the season to shine through once again. He didn’t attend the fancy Christmas parties and galas if he could avoid them, but his days were filled planning for this particular party as well as squeezing in his own Christmas shopping. She had even helped the old man leave rather generous (though anonymous) donations to various charities. (Probably nowhere near as much money as those charities would’ve liked but low enough that no one would realize they came from Scrooge. True, he wouldn’t be able to use them as a tax write-off, but – as he’d explained in the limo – those charities wouldn’t be harassed by other groups demanding to know how they got him to open up his wallet.)

But here and now she could relax, a glass of hot apple cider in hand as she looked out over the festivities. Scrooge gave his employees both Christmas Eve and Christmas off all across the company, something that everyone had always found rather odd. However, as Gandra had discovered, it had been originally set up that way so the Bin workers could enjoy the Christmas celebration within the Bin walls without having to cut into family time, assuming they didn’t just head home. The party had started at the strike of noon, and it was still going strong almost nine hours later. There was a small fleet of cab drivers having their own party in the “public” area of the Bin – all paid for by Scrooge – waiting to ferry home safely anyone too drunk to drive. Everyone had looked so happy and relaxed as they simply enjoyed themselves.

As the clock struck nine, three orbs of green light appeared and swirled about Scrooge, making the old miser laugh as they played with his cheek feathers before they transformed into the famous three Spirits of Christmas. There were gasps and murmurs of surprise throughout the crowd, but things swiftly settled back to the Bin’s crazy definition of normal as Scrooge began chatting with the Spirits like old friends, a broad smile on his face as Christmas Past settled in on his shoulder and the foursome became lost in conversation.

_‘So this is what a merry Christmas is like.’_

Gandra chased down the stray bitter thought with a swig of cider, coughing at the way her throat burned in retaliation. She used the pain as an excuse for why her eyes were watering. Honestly, she was a grown woman. She shouldn’t be crying over such a minor thing; she’d been through much worse than a few bad holidays.

The sound of buzzing wings was the only warning that she had company before Christmas Past hovered in front of her. His expression showed great concern.

“I’m fine,” she said automatically.

“No, you’re not.” He started to move closer before pausing and gesturing to her shoulder. “May I?”

Gandra nodded hesitantly watching the ghostly cricket land where he’d indicated. “I’m Gandra.”

“You can call me ‘Past’. Present, Future, and Scrooge do.”

“It’s nice to meet you then…Past.”

Why was he here with her? Shouldn’t he be spending time with Scrooge and his fellow Spirits? After all, they likely saw Scrooge only once a year. They’d want to spend time with him, right?

Past’s eyes were far older and wiser than what the little Spirit’s youthful form would hint at. It reminded her of Scrooge in a way. They made Gandra shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, wondering just what the ghostly cricket was seeing.

“It’s been a long time for you.” It wasn’t a question.

Gandra nodded slowly.

“You can take your time,” he said gently. “They’re not going anywhere.”

The dove’s eyes went wide, but she instantly felt silly. Of course he would know. “How much do you see?”

“Just your Christmases past,” he answered. “There’s a lot of bad ones. The others here have a lot of those, too.” His antennae drooped a bit. “Christmas can be both a time of joy and sorrow. I’ve seen plenty of both.”

“Yeah. I’ll bet you have. And much worse Christmases than mine.”

Really, what did she have to complain about? True, Christmas had stopped being something to look forward to ever since her mother died, but so many other people had it worse off. Besides, she would get plenty of bonuses when she took the holiday shifts at her previous jobs.

_‘But did I take those jobs because of the money or because I wanted to avoid going home?’_

Thinking back on her father and her ex, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. The Christmases the three of them spent together really hadn’t been all that great.

“It doesn’t matter if those people had worse Christmases than yours. Yours might not have been spent in dire circumstances, but they were still terrible from your perspective. Besides, those two made your Christmases with them something you wanted to avoid as much as possible.”

The moment he’d said it, she realized that, yes, she had been taking extra shifts for something other than the money. She had buried it deep, deep down as she’d tried to please the two most important people in her life, but that didn’t mean it was _gone._

She glanced at the clock, dread eating away at her. It wasn’t the first time she’d been in that position on Christmas Eve. She had done the same thing all during her last Christmas Eve shift at the diner year after year. When the shift ended, any good cheer she could leech off of the customers would be gone.

“I can’t see what Future does, but I can give my best guess for the present: When the party’s over, it doesn’t really have to end. There are people important to you here, and I doubt they’d just leave you to your own devices tomorrow.” Past glanced to her other side before softly smiling. “Just be open for new opportunities for better Christmases to come.”

“What does that – ”

Before she could finish her question, Past disappeared in a puff of spectral smoke. Gandra’s eyes narrowed in frustration. What had the Spirit meant by that?

“G-Gandra?”

She turned her head to see Fenton sweating profusely, the rest of the science team watching from behind him. Despite one having a stone head and the other a festive green bulb, Manny and Lil Bulb looked just as smug as Gyro. Upon turning her attention back to Fenton and seeing him holding his own mug of cider in a death grip, she finally answered him: “Yes?”

He swiped his free hand through his head feathers. “W-well, I was just wondering if you’re, y’know, free tomorrow…and this is purely hypothetical, mind you! Not a commitment of any sort so you can say no!”

“What is it?’ she asked, cutting through the babbling. Fenton was a great guy, but sometimes he could get derailed by his own motor mouth and needed someone to help him focus.

“Oh! Right! I, um, I was just wondering if you’d like to have Christmas dinner with me and M’Ma.” He held up his hands. “Nothing weird, I promise! Just dinner! And I kinda sorta forgot my gift for you back home, so if you don’t want to come to dinner and you’d rather I just drop it off where you’re staying, that’s fine, too! Or I can wait until the day after Christmas! Or after you come back if you go out of town! Just say the word and – Hmm?” Fenton blinked in confusion at how Gandra very lightly pinched his beak shut to get him to stop talking and give her a moment to think.

An invitation to Christmas dinner? Was he just asking because he pitied her being by herself this year? If so, she didn’t need –

_“Stop and push your emotions aside to properly assess the situation,”_ Beakley’s remembered voice told her sternly. _“What we are feeling can warp our perspective much more than you’d think.”_

Gandra took a deep breath, pushing aside the bad Christmas memories and everything that had happened with her father and ex over the past several months. As soon as she did, she realized that Fenton probably did feel a bit sorry for her, but he’d been such a good friend to her during everything that he’d likely wanted to make a friend of his happy.

“What should I bring?” she asked, deciding to take Past’s advice. She released Fenton’s beak.

“You’ll come?! That’s great! Oh, and you don’t need to bring anything unless you’ve got a favorite Christmas food you want to share! Don’t worry about getting M’Ma a present either. I only asked her this morning if I could invite you over, and it’s way too short notice for you to run out and buy something! This is so great!”

Gandra listened to Fenton ramble on excitedly at the good time they were going to have. She felt warmth fill her chest

_‘That’s right. This is what a merry Christmas_ feels _like.’_

She glanced over to where Past stood on Scrooge’s shoulder, the cricket looking back at her. Though he was too small for her to see his expression, she imagined it was a smile.


End file.
